The Dark Hour (1936)

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

Ewart Adamson (writer)
Sinclair Gluck (novel)

Release Date:

18 February 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery

Plot:

A pair of detectives investigates the murder of an elderly millionaire who was the target of blackmail and death threats and find that there is no shortage of suspects, many of them in the victim's own family. |

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Blackmail | Murder | Millionaire | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Ray Walker	...	Jim Landis
Berton Churchill	...	Paul Bernard
Irene Ware	...	Elsa Carson
Hobart Bosworth	...	Charles Carson
Hedda Hopper	...	Mrs. Tallman
E.E. Clive	...	Foot, the Butler
Harold Goodwin	...	Peter Blake
William V. Mong	...	Henry Carson
Michael Mark	...	Arthur Bell (as Michael Marks)
John St. Polis	...	Dr. Munro
Miki Morita	...	Choong
Aggie Herring	...	Mrs. Dubbin, the Cook

Runtime:

64 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity System)

Company:

Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation (I)

The fundamental things apply......

Chesterfield does it again--a tidy whodunit that, surprisingly, holds up pretty well despite its age. The race between the two detectives is quite droll and interesting; it shows, once again, that the fundamental lesson of integration between the old and the new still applies--regardless of decade and/or century. Of course, as the film was lensed nearly 70 years ago, some of the technical aspects of the plot do not age well. And, unless I missed something, I would have preferred a little more detail into the motive for the crime. Despite these minor quibbles, it was a relatively enjoyable 71 minutes, especially when Hedda Hopper was chewing up the scenery.l